Systems and methods for providing a health score for a patient

ABSTRACT

A system and method for providing an indicator of a patient&#39;s health. The system may include a data module receiving data relating to a patient&#39;s health, the data including subjective data, a conversion module generating an output from the data, the output representing the patient&#39;s health, and a display module displaying the output and a standard output for a user to compare with the output. A method of providing a customizable system for generating an indicator of a patient&#39;s health, the method including providing a system including a data module, a conversion module generating an output via a first algorithm, and a display module displaying the output and a standard output generated by a second algorithm, and customizing at least one of the first and second algorithms according to preferences of a user.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/974,696, filedOct. 15, 2007, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional ApplicationSer. No. 60/851,835, filed on Oct. 13, 2006, the entirety of theseapplications is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments disclosed herein relate to a system and method forimproving hospital patient care, and more particularly to a system andmethod for providing a continual measurement and display of eachpatient's health.

BACKGROUND

One of the major problems in delivery of effective medical treatment inhospitals is the quality and continuity of patient care. A typicalpatient, undergoing a serious procedure in a hospital, may easily seefive or more physicians during a stay, and also many nurses and othersupporting personnel. Maintaining a complete medical record for eachpatient (“charting”) swallows huge amounts of nursing time withoutproviding any guidance to the medical staff on how to improve thepatient's care. The present state of the art in medical care withinhospitals makes very little use of the medical record, which is so bulkyand awkward that it can only be quickly perused by doctors on theirrounds. Such reading of the chart makes it almost impossible to evaluatetreatment modalities or to detect a patient's declining health in timefor intervention (before a crisis).

During a week's hospital stay, each patient may see many doctors andmany nurses. This makes it extremely difficult to provide continuity ofcare. Every different caregiver must understand the medical record togive the patient optimum care, but the form and content of present-daymedical charting provides no help. Each subsequent physician, whether aconsultant or a shift replacement, is ill-prepared by current methods toobtain a correct overall medical status of the patient, thus posing adanger to the continued care of the patient, particularly in therecovery stages after serious operations

For example, an attending physician, while making rounds in a hospital,may stop in on a patient, see that the patient has good color and issitting up in bed, and thusly satisfied, goes on to his nextappointment. However, if that patient had been walking up and down thecorridors two days ago, and now cannot get out of bed, there is aproblem. The patient may be experiencing a major and potentiallylife-threatening complication.

The essence of this problem is that, although all the medicalinformation is recorded, it is not easily understood. After just a fewdays in the hospital, a patient may have twenty or even one hundredpages in their hospital record, including physician progress reports,nursing evaluations, records of vital signs, test results, heartmonitoring information, and so on. However, even if every doctor andnurse who saw the patient were fully aware of the material in thisrecord, it would not be enough to allow for the best medical carebecause it is very difficult to detect trends in such voluminous data.

The result of this arrangement has been to allow a number of patients inrecovery, post-operation or procedure, to deteriorate to the point ofmedical crisis before addressing their problems. This causes a seriousdrain to the resources of the hospital, and unnecessary pain andsuffering, even death. It is particularly bothersome because many of theconditions that lead to such crises can easily be avoided if the failingcondition of a patient were discovered hours or days earlier.

One thing that a few hospitals have done is to employ an Early WarningSystem (EWS) as a means for deciding whether a patient needs to betransferred to the ICU. Other hospitals have developed a Modified EarlyWarning System (MEWS). Both existing systems typically use a smallnumber of factors such a pulse, blood pressure, temperature, andrespiratory rate. For each factor, a partial score is given, and all ofthese are then tabulated into a total score, which in turn is expressedas a binary recommendation: whether or not to move the patient into theICU; no other action is suggested, no other information is obtained.

Such systems determine a patient's need to be transferred to the ICU byproviding an emergency alert. However, these systems do not provideassistance to the doctor or nurse in helping to anticipate and therebyavoid medical crises, nor are they helpful to the clinical researcher inevaluating the efficacy of procedures and treatments. They convey nohealth trend information. Also, they are limited in the number offactors analyzed and thus are not very sensitive to general healthconditions.

For example, in the above-described example of a patient sitting up andalert in bed, this type of evaluation completely misses the patient'sdeclining health. Because the patient still does have acceptable vitalsigns, he is not moved to the ICU, and neither the EWS, nor the MEWS,would generate an alert. However, if during the two previous days, thissame patient had been walking around the hospital halls, but is now notable to rise from a bed, an important medical decline has happened,possibly one that will lead to a medical crises if not attended to, eventhough his major vital signs are still acceptable. Some embodiments ofthe present invention address these omissions, providing new continual,sensitive tools for improving medical care.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention may overcome the drawbacksassociated with the prior art by providing a system and method forcontinually tracking the health of a patient in a hospital. Systems andmethods for providing a Health Score for a patient are disclosed herein.According to aspects illustrated herein, there is provided a system forgenerating an indicator of a patient's health, the system including adata module receiving data relating to a patient's health, the dataincluding subjective data, a conversion module generating an output fromthe data, the output representing the patient's health, and a displaymodule displaying the output and a standard output for a user to comparewith the output.

According to aspects illustrated herein, there is provided a method ofproviding a customizable system for generating an indicator of apatient's health, the method including providing a system including adata module receiving data relating to a patient's health, a conversionmodule generating an output determined using the data inputted into afirst algorithm, the output representing the patient's health, and adisplay module displaying the output and a standard output for a user tocompare with the output, the standard output being generated by a secondalgorithm, and customizing at least one of the first and secondalgorithms according to preferences of a user.

According to aspects illustrated herein, there is provided a method ofgenerating indicators of a patient's health, the method includingreceiving data relating to a patient's health, generating an output fromthe data, the output representing the patient's health, displaying theoutput on a display module, comparing the output with at least a secondoutput, and making a healthcare decision based on the comparison.

Various embodiments provide certain advantages. Not all embodiments ofthe invention share the same advantages and those that do may not sharethem under all circumstances. Further features and advantages of theembodiments, as well as the structure of various embodiments aredescribed in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The presently disclosed embodiments will be further explained withreference to the attached drawings, wherein like structures are referredto by like numerals throughout the several views. The drawings shown arenot necessarily to scale, with emphasis instead generally being placedupon illustrating the principles of the presently disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 1 depicts a logical diagram of the Health Score system, inaccordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 depicts an installation arrangement of the Health Score system,in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart of the generation of a Health Score chart,in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention:

FIG. 4 depicts a sample Health Score chart, in accordance with anillustrative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 depicts a sample Health Score chart with pre-operationinformation, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 depicts a sample Health Score chart with statistical referencecurves, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 depicts a sample Health Score chart with principal correspondingmeasurement curves, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 8 depicts a sample Health Score chart with principal correspondingmeasurement curves, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 9 depicts a sample Health Score chart with a component expansionwindow, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 depicts a sample Health Score chart with slope lines, inaccordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 depicts a panel of Health Score charts, in accordance with anillustrative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 depicts a chart showing a correlation between patient HealthScores and rate of expiration, in accordance with an illustrativeembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 depicts a chart showing a patient's Health Score, in accordancewith the illustrative embodiment of Example #1; and

FIG. 14 depicts a chart showing a patient's Health Score, in accordancewith the illustrative embodiment of Example #2.

While the above-identified drawings set forth presently disclosedembodiments, other embodiments are also contemplated, as noted in thediscussion. This disclosure presents illustrative embodiments by way ofrepresentation and not limitation. Numerous other modifications andembodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art which fall withinthe scope and spirit of the principles of the presently disclosedembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method forcontinually tracking the health of a patient in a hospital. At leastsome of the embodiments allow physicians, nurses and clinicalresearchers to provide more effective health care for each patient,especially those spending several days in a hospital. In addition oralternatively, at least some embodiments assist hospitals in avoidingerrors and reducing crisis management by using the systems' capabilityto detect trends in a patient's health before the patient reaches acrisis point. Recognizing a decline soon enough to administer propertreatment may be a life-saving benefit. Embodiments of the system maygive physicians and nurses a way in which to get the “big picture” of apatient's condition and absorb in a glance perhaps 100 pages of apatient's medical records. This deeper understanding, along with thisnew capability to detect health trends, short-term (over the space ofhours) and/or long-term (over the space of days) may be important indelivery of effective medical care. Embodiments may enable a new fieldof scientific study, where medical and surgical treatments can beevaluated by the new measurements provided by embodiments of the presentinvention.

Embodiments of the present invention generate a new measurement ofhealth, herein termed the patient “Health Score,” which may becontinually plotted and displayed to show each patient's medicalprogress during his hospital stay. The health of the patient may relatea patient's vitality and overall quality of life rather than simplybeing free from disease. Although a patient who has a terminal disease,such as cancer, may conventionally be considered to be in ‘poor health’;however, if a cancer patient who only has a few months to live isplaying ping pong for hours, he/she may be considered to be in goodhealth, as the term is used herein. In comparison, a patient who enteredthe hospital to have a simple surgery, such as a tonsillectomy, mayconventionally have been considered to be and will likely recover to bein ‘excellent health.’ However, while recovering, the tonsillectomypatient's vitality might be low and his/her change of dying in the nearfuture could be much higher if a complication were to arise; thus, thepatient may be considered to be in poor health, as the term is usedherein. The health of a patient may relate to the patient's overallphysical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing and not merely theabsence of disease or infirmity. Embodiments of the present inventionmay prove to be a vital aid for improving the quality and continuity ofmedical care.

To this end, embodiments of the present invention may provide systemsfor improving hospital patient care by generating a Health Score. Thesystem may include an interface module for receiving incoming medicaldata from a patient, a transformation module for transforming themedical datum into a transformed Health Score value, and a combinationmodule for combining the transformed Health Score values correspondingto each of the medical datum into a single Health Score. A presentationand/or comparison module displays the Health Score as a Health Scoreplot over a predetermined time frame, such that a user may identifyhealth trends in a patient by evaluating said Health Score plot. TheHealth Score system is described in more detail below.

In addition to the features of the Heath Score and uses thereof, it isfurther contemplated that an exemplary use of such system may includethe use of the Health Score (Health Score) to provide a panel of HealthScore Charts, giving a nurse or doctor an overview as to the progress ofmany patients at one time, as is described further below.

In one embodiment, the Health Score may be used to predict the odds of acrisis within N number of hours. That is, for example, there is a 20%chance of a crisis in the next 12 hours. This information may be used toassign additional observation to particular patients, or if a crisis isjudged to be imminent, a call may be initiated to a Rapid Response Team.Another use for the Health Score is to route doctor's rounds, so thatwalking instructions can be provided for a doctor doing rounds. Thiswill allow a doctor to quickly move to patients requiring more attentionfirst, and then proceed to less critical patients. A doctor or nurse mayannotate a chart, such as adding a comment, for example “Breathingwell,” or a nurse could say “Tubes removed.” Charts may also beannotated by adding special ICONS . . . for example, a walking man toshow that the patient is now mobile. The name of the doctor who istreating the patient may also be added to the chart.

One way in which a crisis may be predicted is by comparing theindividual patient's Health Score with a standard recovery curve. Bytailoring the standard recovery curve to the patient, better results maybe obtained. For example, one of the exemplary ways in which patientsmay be categorized is by DRG/ICD-9 grouping systems. DRG stands for adiagnostic related group and ICD-9 is the international classificationof disease. Both of these are ways of categorizing patients based onwhat disease or ailment the patients have and are employed by insurancecompanies to figure out how much the insurance company should pay outfor a particular policyholder in the hospital. For example, the standardrecovery curve for someone having had elective rhinoplasty is likely tobe very different from the standard recovery curve of someone who had aheart-lung transplant. If the rhinoplasty patient's health wasdeclining, but the rhinoplasty patient's health was viewed in comparisonwith someone who had serious surgery, such as a heart-lung transplant,the decline might not be viewed as being significant, while in realitythe rhinoplasty patient could be about to experience a cardiac orrespiratory crisis. If the transplant patient's health is improving, butthe patient's health is viewed in comparison with other patients whohave had the same procedure and the recovery is much slower this couldbe an early indication of a complication. By comparing patients based ontheir disease, treatment/surgery, or affliction, the patient's HealthScore may be better interpreted.

In some embodiments, ICD-9, which groups patients into thousands ofdetailed categories, normative data plots may be used, while in someembodiments DRG, which groups patients into about 500 categories, may beused, while in yet other embodiments, a combination of the two groupingsystems may be used. Not all embodiments are intended to be limited inthis respect and any disease grouping system or data may be employed tocreate a singular or combination standard recovery curve.

In some embodiments, creating the standard curve may entail reviewinggraphs of all previous patients with the same DRG/IDC-9 code in adatabase and plotting them as one or more curves. The curve may berepresented by an average curve, all of the individual patient's curves,a median curve, a top 25^(th) percentile and a bottom 25^(th)percentile, plus or minus some number of standard deviations therebycreating a normative recovery as well as upper and lower bounds, anycombination of the foregoing or any other representative indicator asnot all embodiments of the present invention are intended to be limitedin this respect. By using these types of normative curves a doctor maybe able to see that even if a patient is recovering, the patient mightbe recovering more slowly (too shallow a slope) than the average patientwith a similar condition and this slower recovery might be cause forfurther investigation.

Not only may the grouping codes be useful in comparison with the HealthScore, but the grouping codes may be utilized in generating a moreaccurate Health Score. In some embodiments, a user may modify thealgorithm used to generate the Health Score based on the diagnosis orgrouping code of the patient in order to have the Health Score moreaccurately reflect the patient's recovery

Yet another exemplary use of the Heath Score arrangement is its use inpredicting the length of stay for a patient or group of patients,sometimes termed ELOS (expected length of stay). Such an arrangement maybe used to apply to a group of patients and therefore allowing ahospital to create a forward-looking resource plan, i.e. how many nursesare needed on a subsequent day of the week based on the current hospitalpopulation in a particular department. Some grouping codes, such as DRG,have ELOS times built into the grouping code, such that someone having acertain surgery will have an ELOS of a certain amount of time. Forexample, a patient having knee surgery may have an ELOS of 2.3 days andthe hospital will be paid accordingly. However, if the patient actuallytakes 4.1 days to recover, the hospital may lose money or the patientmay have to pay the difference, but if the patient if discharged after1.5 days, the hospital may earn a profit.

In some embodiments, the life expectancy or mortality of a patient, suchas the likelihood that a patient will die within the next 24 hours, maybe predicted. For example, if a terminal patient is listed as DNR (donot resuscitate) or “keep patient comfortable,” a family member may wantto know the life expectancy of the terminal patient to plan for theinevitable death.

By comparing a patient's Health Score with a standard, many inferencesmay be drawn from the comparison. For example, in some embodiments,patients may be given a category, such as critical, critical but stable,serious, serious but stable, fair, and/or good. These categories may bewords or terms, numbers (such as 1-5 or 1-100), colors (such as red,orange, yellow, or green), a made up system of categorizing, or anyother system. In addition, the categories may be discrete, such aschoosing one of four colors or may be continuous, such as choosing anynumber from one to 100.

By having patients categorized, administrative decisions and carepriority can be determined accordingly. For example, in someembodiments, a nurse scheduling tool may be incorporated or separatelydetermined which would allow shift nurses to see the conditions of allpatients on the floor and assign nurses based on skill level, so thatmore experienced nurses have more critical patients and newer nurseshave more stable patients. In some embodiments, the nurse schedulingtool may rank patients, for example, 1-10 and allocate patients to eachnurse so that no nurse has a total patient rank of for example, morethan 25 (e.g., two very critical patients of rank 10 and one fair butstable patient of rank 5, four fair but stable patients of ranks 5.2,5.4, 5.7 and 6.1, or two serious patients of rank 8 and one serious butstable patient of rank 7.2). In some embodiments, the ELOS predictionmay be incorporated into the nursing schedules, so that discharges maybe predicted and the charge nurse may be able to know how many staffmembers may be required to work an upcoming shift. Similarly, thesesystems may be applied to routing a doctor's rounds, as described above.

In another possible arrangement, the Health Score may be used todetermine priority and timing of the post-discharge “how are you doing”call. For example, patients leaving the hospital with favorable HeathScores may be called in three days for a checkup, whereas patients withmarginally acceptable Heath Scores may be called sooner.

The Heath Score as disclosed in the incorporated documents, and abovemay be fine tuned to each hospital in which it is implemented. Mosthospitals have slight differences in procedures, standards, requirementsand other elements of daily practice as compared to other hospitals andsome embodiments of the present invention may be adapted to a specifichospital's preferences. In particular, when using subjective variablesto produce a Health Score, as will be described further below, somehospitals may be more conservative in evaluating a patient's condition.For example, nurses at a first hospital may be taught that slightly greyskin is a reason to fail a skin assessment while nurses at a secondhospital may be taught that a patient should pass a skin assessmentuntil the skin is really grey. This difference may make average scoreson the Health Score lower at the first hospital, which could mean thatthe predicted health of a patient would appear worse at the firsthospital than at the second hospital. By adjusting the Health Scoreaccording to an individual hospital's procedures, the Health Score maybe more accurate.

In some embodiments, the Heath Score may be used for evaluationpurposes. For example, the Heath Score may be used to evaluate theperformance of a particular doctor's or nurse's performance, or even ofthe hospital itself. It can also be used to evaluate a particulartreatment by studying Heath Score charts of patients that underwent aparticular treatment.

In addition to evaluation of doctors, the system may be used to compareeffectiveness of medical treatments, compare the quality of careprovided by different wards or hospitals, and compare the skill ofhealthcare providers by providing an objective assessment of a patient'shealth and response to various factors. In some embodiments, thealgorithm may be customized after a patient's stay to further evaluatethe care of the patient and compare the patient with other patients. Forexample, if two patients had the same diagnosis and received differenttreatments, a hospital or doctor may want to compare those two patients'recoveries. However, if one patient had a small drop in their HealthScore due to an unrelated event, such as having an allergic reaction totopically applied medication, the algorithm may be adjusted to exclude afactor, such as a skin standard of the nursing assessment, from theHealth Score of both patients, so that the two patients are stillevaluated using the same algorithm, but the comparison is tailored tofocus on the recovery from the treatments and exclude unrelateddeviations.

In another embodiment, the Health Score chart shapes can be clustered todiscover the “types” of patient health trajectories. Generalprototypical trajectories, or trajectories computed as a function ofdisease or procedure may be compared against actual Heath Score chartsto determine how a particular patient is responding to treatment. Once aHealth Score chart is assigned to such a prototypical trajectory, it mayfurther indicate the likelihood of various outcomes. In someembodiments, this may be accomplished by using DRG/IRC-9 groupings, asdiscussed herein.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the Heath Score may beused as part of a remote monitoring service, where a remote healthservice provider can monitor the score of several patients and alert anon-site staff if there is an emergency. The Health Score can be refinedusing neural networks, or other analytical methods. The Health Score maybe fed to a central data hub and be used to monitor for large scaletrends in health problems, including a biological or chemical attack.

While in some embodiments an individual Health Score falling below aminimum mark or the change in Health Score or slope of the Health Scoresfalling below a minimum change may trigger an alarm or be interpreted bya healthcare provider as an indication of the patient's declininghealth, in some embodiments the change in slope or derivative of theslope of the Health Scores falling below a certain minimum may triggeran alarm or be interpreted by a healthcare provider as an indication ofthe patient's rapidly declining health. For example, if a patient isslightly declining and suddenly starts to decline at a much faster rate,this change in the acceleration of the slope may trigger an alarm. Insome embodiments, the curvature of the Health Score plot may beprovided, such as by a presentation and/or comparison module.

Many times a patient's health may be compromised in favor of conformingthe patient's care to hospital standards. For example, many hospitalsrequire their healthcare workers to take a patient's vital signs every2-4 hours, which requires awakening patients during the night and oftentimes not allowing them to complete a full sleep and enter deep sleep,which may be critical to a patient's recovery, and to draw blood frompatients every day or two, which can be detrimental to an anemic orhemophiliac. If a patient has been recovering well and has an increasingHealth Score, a healthcare worker may rely on the Health Score todetermine whether or not a routine test or procedure may be skipped inorder to allow the patient to better recover.

The system may include the ability to view a patient's prior hospitalvisits. In some embodiments, if a patient has a recurring condition, itmay be preferable to view that patient's past Health Scores in additionto the present Health Score. In addition or alternatively, the graph maydisplay a one or more Health Scores calculated using different inputs,such as a red line with circular data points for when the entry reflectsnursing assessments, a blue line with square data points for blood workand/or a green line with triangular points for a chem panel. Differencesin data source may be represented with unique icons or any other meansof differentiating them, as not all embodiments are intended to belimited in these respects. In addition or alternatively, a doctor orhealthcare provider may click on or hover over a point to accessadditional information, such as the data inputted to calculate theHealth Score, an average reading, values from earlier in the patient'sstay, or any other information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a Health Score system 10may be provided for generating and presenting a Health Score. The HealthScore may be a medical reference “figure-of-merit” that is used by ahealth caretaker, such as a physician, nurse or other health attendant,to track the patient's health before, during or after a medicalprocedure or illness, in order to assist in preventing that patient fromreaching a health crisis. When used in this manner, the Health Scorechart enables the attending physicians and nurses to detect trends inthe patient's health over time, particularly in evaluatingpost-operative recovery in the hospital. It also provides astatistically significant “outcome” for both clinical studies andretrospective studies of the relative efficacies among various surgicalprocedures or techniques, and among medical treatments and drugs.

In addition to short term intensive use of the Health Score system 10, asimilar modified form may be used on a long term basis by regulargeneral practitioners or other health care facilitates such as nursinghomes. For example, as it stands, yearly physicals are usuallyaccompanied by a series of medial measurements of the patient. Enteringsuch data in Health Score system 10 may be useful in spotting long termdeclining health trends, even if none of the particular medicalconditions have reached a crisis level.

To generate and present the Health Score, as illustrated in FIG. 1,system 10 may have an interface module 12, a collection module 14, atransformation module 16, a combination module 18, a presentation and/orcomparison module 20, an alert module 22, and/or a storage module 24.

Interface module 12 may be configured to obtain or receive raw medicalinput, either directly from patient monitoring devices, or fromattending physicians or nurses. Collection module 14 may collect the rawmedical data from interface module 12, and further may collectadditional material from storage module 24, including the patient'shistorical medical data as well as other required general medical data(optional statistics). In some embodiments, the raw medical data may betransmitted to transformation module 16, and the stored and historicalmedical data may be sent to presentation and/or comparison module 20. Insome embodiments, the medical and historical data may be sent to thetransformation module 16 and/or the presentation and/or comparisonmodule 20.

Transformation module 16 may receive incoming raw medical data and mayconvert this data into a usable format for generating the patient'sHealth Score. Transformation module 16 may convert raw medical data intoa form that will allow different types of data to be combined, such as ascaled number. The transformed data may then be sent to combinationmodule 18, which in turn may generate a patient's Health Score, using apredetermined algorithm. The combination module 18 may combine thetransformed Health Score values corresponding to the medical data into asingle Health Score, such as by adding the scaled numbers and applying apredetermined algorithm to the sum of the scaled numbers to generate aHealth Score.

Presentation and/or comparison module 20 may receive the calculatedHealth Score and may prepare a Health Score chart 100, plotting thepatient's Health Score as a function of time. In some embodiments, thepresentation and/or comparison module 20 may display the Health Score asa Health Score plot over a predetermined time frame, such that a usermay identify health trends in a patient by evaluating the Health ScorePlot. Alert module 22, may generate an alarm for the attendingphysicians and nurses when a problem is detected with a patient's HealthScore chart 100. An alert may be activated for such problems when theHealth Score of a patient descends below an acceptable threshold,determined in advance by system 10 or set by the attending physician, orif a downward trend is detected. Storage module 24 may be configured tostore and retrieve Health Score information at various times during theHealth Score generation and presentation procedure.

It is understood that the above list of modules is intended only as asample of the logical organization of modules within system 10. Forexample, many of the modules may be combined with one another orsubdivided and separated according to their function. In someembodiments, a data module may act as a collection for all data, both asinputted into an interface module and as stored in a storage module, aconversion module may transform and combine the data using an algorithmand creating an output, and a display module may present and compare theoutput as well as alert a healthcare provider to a potential issues. Anysimilar Health Score system, employing similar logical modules to obtaina Health Score is also within the contemplation of the presentinvention.

Furthermore, it is noted that the modules of system 10, illustrated inFIG. 1, are to show their logical relationship to one another. However,this is not intended to limit the physical construction of such asystem. For example, system 10 may be employed on a single largercomputer or on a series of smaller computers, possibly with differentcomponents residing within different geographical locations, such as theuse of an off-site storage module 24. Any health care system 10 mayemploy similar modules to generate a Health Score alert, as not allembodiments of the present invention are intended to be limited in thismanner.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary embodiment of an arrangement for system 10,showing five patient recovery rooms 30, in a typical hospital with acentral nursing station 32 that is monitored 24 hours a day. System 10may have a local terminal 10A in each of the five patient rooms 30 and amain terminal 10B at nursing station 32.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart outlining the process for generating andpresenting a patient's Health Score via system 10. In step 200, apatient may be admitted for a particular illness or surgical procedureand is subsequently connected to system 10. At step 202, various medicaldevices/monitors for obtaining the pertinent raw medical data areattached to the patient, such as blood pressure monitors, heart ratemonitors, etc.

At step 204, interface module 12 may begin obtaining the pertinent rawmedical data about the patient and imports this data into system 10.Some data may be obtained directly from the attached medical devices orfrom electronic medical records. Other data may be entered into thesystem by an attending physician or nurse. At step 206, this data may besent to collection module 14. At step 208, collection module 14 mayfurther obtain any necessary past medical data, most importantly thepast Health Scores of the same patient. The raw data may be transmittedto transformation module 16, and the historical data is sent topresentation and/or comparison module 20.

Next, at step 210, transformation module 16 may transform the rawpatient medical data into a usable format, so that all of the disparateforms of medical data can readily be compiled with one another. At step212, the transformed medical data may be sent to combination module 18,which converts that raw transformed medical data into a Health Scoreusing a predetermined algorithm. At step 214, the Health Score may betransmitted to presentation and/or comparison module 20, which uses thecurrent Health Score, as well as historical data from storage module 24(past Health Scores), to generate a Health Score chart 100.

A sample Health Score chart 100 is shown in FIG. 4, plotting a patient'sHealth Score, calculated by system 10 as a function of time. Chart 100includes scale markings 102 and label material 104 and a Health Scoreplot 106. This chart 100 shows a sample Health Score plot 106 for apatient recovering from open-heart surgery, for 6 days. Initially therecovery was going well, but at approximately the beginning of thefourth day, health deteriorated. A more detailed description of thecontents and evaluation of a Health Score chart 100 is included below.

At step 216, after Health Score chart 100 has been generated,presentation and/or comparison module 20 may modify and display theHealth Score chart 100 to healthcare providers, via interface module 12of system 10. At step 218, presentation and/or comparison module mayfurther save any necessary information to storage module 24.

Finally at step 220, if the Health Score, according to plot 106, fallsbelow a predetermined threshold, alert module 22 may inform thehealthcare providers, either through interface module 12 or via someother alarm, that the patient is in need of attention.

It is noted that the above list of steps for generating Health Scorechart 100 via system 10 is intended only to show an exemplarystep-by-step process. For example, several of the steps may be combinedwith one another or possibly one step may be divided into a number ofsubroutines. Any similar process using steps to create a Health Scorechart on a similar system is also with in the contemplation of thepresent invention.

Turning now to a more detailed description of the various modules ofsystem 10, interface module 12 may receive raw medical data input atstep 204, and transmits it to the various collection and processingmodules 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 of system 10, at step 206. Typically,the input may include any number of the medical statistics that are usedto generate the Health Score produced by system 10. Interface module 12of system 10 may be as simple as a keyboard and monitor, used for manualentry of patient data. Furthermore, it may additionally include a set ofautomated electrical instruments such as pulse clips, automated bloodpressure devices, blood oxygen measuring devices, fluid monitoringdevices or any other standard medical measuring device, attached eitherby wire or remotely to interface module 12.

In addition to providing an interface for receiving medical data on thepatients, interface module 12 may also be configured to present a meansfor users, such as doctors or nurses, to update, modify or review thepatient's Health Score at step 216. Furthermore, interface module 12 mayalso be employed by alert module 22 at step 220 to alert the healthcareproviders that alert module 22 has detected a threshold breach, which isexplained in greater detail below

Collection module 14 may be coupled to interface module 12 for receivingthe various raw patient data at step 206. Collection module 14 mayaccept this data from various ports, including interface module 12 aswell as other programs, such as electronic medical records (EMR), andstores this data in storage module 24. Thus, in addition to the rawphysical patient data and physician/nurse input obtained from interfacemodule 12, collection module 14 may further collect and organizes all ofthe data necessary to generate and maintain the Health Score chart 100of the patient, including collecting historical data, performed at step208.

In some embodiments of generating a Health Score chart 100, the patientdata that may be collected by collection module 14 of system 10 mayinclude both subjective and objective data. Although objective data hasbeen used in the past to generate a single number representing apatient's health, subjective data, such as nursing assessments, may bevery significant in predicting the health of a patient. Subjective datamay include variables, which may require human evaluation or assessment,rather than collecting a numerical value, such as blood pressure, heartrate, and other measurable factors. On some embodiments, subjective dataincludes information commonly collected in nursing assessments. Examplesof subjective data may include standards which are determined by a nurseafter assessing a variety of factors in a category, such as cardiacstandard (which may be include factors, such as pulse rate in beats perminute, warmth and dryness of ski, blood pressure, and/or symptoms ofhypotension), food/nutrition standard ((which may be include factors,such as ability to chew and/or swallow, manual dexterity, and/orconsumption of daily diet as ordered, observed or stated),gastrointestinal standard (which may be include factors, such as feeland appearance of the abdomen, bowel sounds, nausea or vomiting,continence and/or bowel patterns), genitourinary standards (which may beinclude factors, such as voids, continence, urine color and/or smell asobserved or stated, and/or urinary catheter), musculoskeletal standards(which may be include factors, such as ability to move all extremitiesindependently and/or perform functional activities as observed orstated, including use of assistive devices), neurological standards(which may be include factors, such as alertness, orientation topersons, place, time and situation and/or speech coherence), painstandard (which may be include factors, such as pain/VAS level and/orchronic pain management), peripheral vascular standard (which may beinclude factors, such as normal appearance and feel (e.g., warm andpink) of extremities, capillary refill, peripheral pulses, edema,numbness and/or tingling), psycho-social standard (which may be includefactors, such as appropriateness of behavior to situation, expressedconcerns and fears being addressed and/or support system), respiratorystandard (which may be include factors, such as respirations at rest,bilateral breath sounds, nail beds and mucous membranes, and/or look andfeel of sputum), safety/fall risk standard (which may be includefactors, such as risk of patient to self and/or others), and/orskin/tissue standard (which may be include factors, such as skin CD&I,reddened areas, alertness, cooperation and ability to reposition selfindependently, and/or Braden scale). In some embodiments any or all ofthe above standards can be determined by a nurse using a pass/failsystem. Even though these standards may be binary assessments, thetransition from passing a standard to failing a standard can be verypredictive in indicating the health of a patient. For example, if apatient moves from failing two standards, to failing five standards, tofailing 7 standards, the patient may be going through a very seriousdecline in health, even if the patient's vital signs are relativelynormal or not changing.

This information can be collected in any way, such as a nurse fillingout a checklist on a clipboard, entering the data directly into acomputer, PDA, a handheld electronic device or any other device, as notall embodiments are intended to be limited in this respect. Inadditional or alternatively, these determinations may be made by meansother than healthcare workers, such as by a smart bed or another devicewhich can provide an electronic assessment.

In some embodiments, additional data from a healthcare provider's notesmay be incorporated as data. For example, a patient may have passed therespiratory standard of a nursing assessment, but the nurse may haveindicated a notation of “diminished breathing capacity.” This note maybe incorporated into the nursing assessment analysis or as a separatevariable as not all embodiments of the present invention are intended tobe limited in this respect.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a single term in theHealth Score formula may contain multiple medical data inputs. Forexample, as noted in the above incorporated discussions of Heath Scorevarious medical readings (e.g. blood pressure, heart rate etc. . . . )are each transformed into a particular number which are combined to formthe plotted Heath Score. It is understood however, the multiple medicaldata inputs may be combined before being transformed, such that thetransformed number used for forming a portion of the Heath Score, may bea combination of multiple health readings. For example, systolic anddiastolic blood pressure may be combined into a single number beforebeing transformed for use in the Heath Score. Factors used indetermining the Health Score may include objective and subjectivefactors, such as diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure,temperature, pulse, respiration rate, a pain score, weight, skinbreakdown score, EKG pattern, and a set of nursing assessments, asdescribed above. Thus, collection module 14 may obtain both past andpresent data necessary for the patient on each of the categories to formHealth Score chart 100. Other inputs into the system may include weight,height, body mass index, or any other variables as not all embodimentsof the present invention are intended to be limited in this manner

Transformation module 16 may be configured to transform each of thepieces of medical data obtained from collection module 14 into anumerical quantity at step 210. The transformation performed by module16 may include any number of mathematical or logical operations.Transformations may also take multiple inputs to produce a singletransformed output. Multiple inputs may include historical data for thispatient or for any given class of patients. For example, if thepatient's pulse is greater then one standard deviation above thatexpected for a certain group of patients at this stage of theirrecovery, then the value of “High Pulse” is one, otherwise it is zero.An example of a transformation for diastolic blood pressure (TDBP) wouldbe:

-   -   if diastolic blood pressure (DBP)<50, then TDBP=2;    -   if DBP>50 and DBP<90, then TDBP=0;    -   if DBP>89 and DBP<100, then TDBP=1;    -   if DBP>99 then, TDBP=2.        In this case, either very low values of diastolic blood pressure        (less than 50), or high values of diastolic blood pressure        (greater than 99), are considered dangerous.

Another example of a transformation may be for a nursing assessment. Forexample, if the respiration assessment equals “met standards” then thetransformed respiration rate equals zero. If the nursing assessment forrespiration equals “did not meet standards” then the transformedrespiration rate equals one.

Thus, transformation module 16, after receiving raw data from collectionmodule 14, may process the data and transforms them into numbers for usein generating a Health Score for the patient.

The following serves as an exemplary embodiment of a list of typicalconversions of raw medical data into numerical form (“transformednumbers”) by transformation module 16, for use by system 10 indeveloping a patient Health Score:

-   -   if diastolic blood pressure<50 then Transformed Diastolic BP=2    -   diastolic between 50 and 89, then . . . 0    -   diastolic between 90 and 99, then . . . 1    -   diastolic>99, then . . . 2    -   all nursing assessments . . . Met=0 . . . or Not Met=1    -   multiply cardiac, neurological, pain, peripheral vascular,        psychosocial, respiratory and skin/tissue assessments by 2    -   if Braden score<18, then . . . 1    -   if Braden score greater or equal to 18, then . . . 0    -   if systolic blood pressure<70, then . . . 3    -   if systolic>69 and <81, then . . . 2    -   if systolic>80 and less than 101, then . . . 1    -   if systolic>100 and <200, then . . . 0    -   if systolic>199, then . . . 2    -   if heart rate<40, then . . . 2    -   if heart rate>39 and <51, then . . . 1    -   if heart rate>50 and <101, then . . . 0    -   if heart rate>100 and <111, then . . . 1    -   if heart rate>110 and <130, then . . . 2    -   if heart rate>129, then . . . 3    -   if respiration<9, then . . . 2    -   if respiration>8 and <15, then . . . 0    -   if respiration>14 and <21, then . . . 1    -   if respiration>20 and <30, then . . . 2    -   if respiration>29, than . . . 3    -   if temperature<95, then . . . 2    -   if temperature>94 and <101.1, then . . . 0    -   if temperature greater or equal to 101.1, then . . . 2    -   If the monitored heart pattern is “atrial fibrillation”, “sinus        rhythm”, “sinus tachycardia” or “paced” then . . . 1    -   If the monitored heart pattern is “sinus bradycardia” then . . .        2    -   If the monitored heart pattern is “atrial flutter” OR “heart        block” then . . . 3    -   If the monitored heart pattern is “junctional rhythm” then . . .        4    -   If the monitored heart pattern is “ventricular tachycardia” then        . . . 5    -   Or if the monitored heart pattern is “ventricular fibrillation”        then . . . 5.

These conversions of patient data into numbers are done solely for thepurpose of example. It is understood that any conversion of raw medicaldata into a useable form for further calculation within the context ofsystem 10 is within the contemplation of the present invention.

The above conversions of medical data into scaled numbers is geared toassessment of negative factors. However, it is understood that positiveassessments may be included too, resulting in “negative” scaled numbers,that would show a positive affect on the Health Score. For example,transformation module 16 may give a negative scaled number in the eventthat heart rate or lung capacity or other such medical data is not onlyOK, but is in fact at an ideal state.

Combination module 18 may be configured to take the transformedquantities from transformation module 16, apply weighting modifiers, andto combine them, and then to scale them onto a range, such as a scorebetween 0 and 100, at step 212. This score, generated by combinationmodule 18, is based on the various health factors measured andtransformed above, the resulting score being a relative overall HealthScore of the patient being monitored.

An example of a combination Health Score generated by combination module18, using the “transformed numbers” (as described above) generated bytransformation module 16 of system 10, may be:

PART 1:

“Health Sum”=Diastolic Blood Pressure+Temperature+Respiration+SystolicBlood Pressure+Heart Rate+Braden Score+Cardiac Assessment+FoodAssessment+Gastrointestinal Assessment+Genitourinary Assessment+HeartRhythm+Musculoskeletal Assessment+Neurological Assessment+PainScore+Pain Assessment+Peripheral VascularAssessment+Psycho-Sociological+Respiratory Assessment+Safety/FallAssessment+Skin/Tissue Assessment

PART 2:

Health Score=100*(30−“Health Sum”)/30

Based upon the above formulae, a sample calculation of a patient'sHealth Score could be performed by transformation module 16 andcombination module 18, if the collection module 14 of system 10 foundthe following raw medical data:

-   -   Diastolic Blood Pressure of 95=1    -   Negative nursing cardiac assessment=2    -   Negative nursing respiratory assessment=2    -   Braden Score of 18=0    -   Systolic Blood Pressure of 202=1    -   Heart Rate of 100=1    -   Respiration Rate of 14=0    -   Temperature of 98=0    -   Heart Rhythm of sinus bradycardia=2    -   “Health Sum”=(totaling of all above)=9        Health Score=100*(30−“Health Sum”)/30=100*(30−9)/30=70

Such transformations and calculations are intended only to be a simpleexample of determining a Health Score, as performed by system 10.However, it is in no way intended to limit the possible methods ofcalculating the score. For example, not all measured raw medical dataneed to be incorporated into a Health Score. The attending physician maywish to generate the score using only limited data to preventnon-essential medical data from significantly altering the Health Score.

Another example would be to include the use of weighting factors (2times, 3 times, etc.) that can be added or multiplied to certaintransformed numbers, such as the respiratory factors, when a particularpatient is recovering from a lung-based ailment such as pneumonia.Likewise, similar weighting factors can be added to the transformedscores of heart rate, heart rhythm, systolic and diastolic pressure forpatients with heart ailments. It is understood that any number ofmodifications introduced into a similar combination module 18 within asimilar system 10 for generating a Health Score is within thecontemplation of the present invention.

Presentation and/or comparison module 20 of system 10 may be configuredto import the various data components compiled by combination module 18and to create a Health Score chart 100 for the patient at step 214, andmay display it via interface module 12 of system 10, or on an existingmedical information system, such as the hospital's pre-existing computersystem. In some embodiments, the presentation and/or comparison module20 may include a statistical reference curve on said Heath Score plot,so that the Health Score may be easily compared to an average patientwith similar conditions and circumstances. In some embodiments, thepresentation and/or comparison module 20 may supply principalcorresponding measurements of direct raw medical data on said HeathScore chart, may provide a smoothed Heath Score curve, alongside saidHeath Score plot that provides a running average of the Health Scoreplot over time and/or may supply the curvature of a smoothed HealthScore plot.

As discussed above, FIG. 4 illustrates a sample Health Score chart 100generated by system 10 using the above-described modules. Additionalfunctions of comparison module 20 are shown below which edit, modify orotherwise present various versions of Health Score chart 100, performedby system 10 at step 216.

Health Score chart 100 may be for displaying the Health Score of apatient at particular times, and more importantly, may be for detectingtrends in a patient's health. Thus, Health Score chart 100 may include anumber of Health Score assessments taken frequently, both at periodic(e.g. every 15 minutes, or every 3 hours), or at irregular intervals.This generates the Health Score chart 106 as shown in FIG. 4, plottingthe patient's Health Score versus time as set by scales 102.

For example in FIG. 4, the Health Score of the patient may be computedten times a day, approximately every 2 hours over the course of thesix-day post-operative stay. During the first four days, the patientprogressed from an average Health Score in the low 60s to the high 80s.But shortly thereafter, at the beginning of the fourth day, thepatient's score began to decline back into the 60s range.

It is at this particular moment, at the beginning of the fourth day,that the Health Score chart 100 can prove to be a critical tool formedical care. If an attending physician were to see this patient at theend of day 4 without the Health Score chart, the patient's vitalstatistics would show a person of decent physical health. Thiscorresponds to the score of 70 on the health chart, which is aboutaverage health during a post-operation recovery, according to thisexample. Thus without the chart 100, the patient would exhibit decenthealth, and the attending physician would have to rely his own quickperusal of the patient's medical records.

However, with the Health Score chart 100 available, it would be obviousto a physician or nurse that something is going wrong with the patientat the end of day 4. This is a critical time for the patient, becauseimmediate treatment may prevent a crisis. The new information conveyedby chart 100, beyond what is normally available (that the patient iscurrently in an acceptable state), is that: less than 1 day ago, thispatient was in a much better general state of health and is currently ina state of declining health. Thus by intervening in the situation rightat the beginning of day 5, the doctors were able to stabilize thepatient without further significant decline, so that he could bereleased from the hospital at the end of day 6.

Comparison module 20 may be used to generate and present pre-operationreference curves. Information from pre-operation 108 may be posted onthe patient's Health Score chart 100 so as to give additional context totheir condition. For example, before an operation, the patient may haveexhibited a Health Score of 50. After the operation, the doctors mayexpect the patient to be significantly better. Since before theoperation he had a Health Score of 75, we expect that, although he willgo through some difficult periods during recovery, he will get back to75 within a week. This acts as a baseline reference, to help betterpersonalize the chart 100 to each patient. FIG. 5 shows an example ofpre-operation Health Score information 108, included on a typical HealthScore chart 100, with a pre-operation Health Score of 80.

Statistical reference curves 110 may also be added to Health Score chartby comparison module 20. For example, when such information isavailable, statistically computed average patient Health Scoretrajectories, for each specific procedure and initial patient condition,may be included on chart 100 next to the Health Score plot 106. Thisinformation may be stored in a storage module 24, and may be importedinto comparison module 20 by collection module 14. Statistical referencecurves 110 may include linear information with standard deviation errorbars or transformed values. If the patient is below expectation by acertain number of standard deviations, the system generates an alertusing alert module 22, as discussed below.

For example, in FIG. 6, on the Health Score chart 100, the line labeled“Standard Open Heart” may be a statistical reference curve 110 of theaverage recovery of an open-heart surgery patient of age 80. The HealthScore plot 106 labeled “Jane Smith—Room 7A” is the actual Health Scorerepresentation of the recovery of Jane Smith. One sees that although Ms.Smith has steadily improved since her operation, for the last severaldays she has improved at a much slower rate than would be expected whencompared to average (past) patients of the same age undergoing a similarprocedure. Statistical reference curves 110 can be compiled from currentpatients or an evaluation of past patients by using their records togenerate Health Score histories.

Further subdivisions can also be made for such statistical referencecurves. For example, instead of having a single reference curve 110 foraverage open-heart patients of age 80, it can be further broken down bygender, and even further modified as to a patient's initial condition byusing only patients with similar Health Scores at the time of admissioninto the hospital.

Principal corresponding measurement curves 112 may also be generated bycomparison module 20 of system 10. The Health Score chart 100 mayprovide an instant context and patient health trajectory on Health Scoreplot 106. It is also important for healthcare providers to have accessto other direct measurements. FIG. 7 illustrates a typical Health Scorechart 100 that includes these direct medical measurements 112. Themeasurement curves 112 may include but are not limited to: diastolicblood pressure, temperature, respiration rate, pulse, and pain score.This allows healthcare providers to detect other trends that may beaffecting the Health Score and, thus, the patient.

In the example in FIG. 7, the patient has a severely reduced HealthScore from December 12 through December 15. By looking at theaccompanying principal corresponding measurement curves 112, it can beseen that the patient had developed a fever on the 12^(th) and was alsodealing with Atrial Fibrillation. By the 16^(th) these conditions hadbeen resolved, with a corresponding sharp increase in Health Score.

FIG. 8 is another example of adding principal corresponding measurementcurves 112 to a standard Health Score chart 100. In this example, it canbe seen that the Principal Corresponding Measurement curves 112themselves are important. The line at the bottom of the Health Scorechart 100 is “pain scale” which is an evaluation of the patient's painlevel. It is scaled between zero and ten. This patient is experiencingsignificant pain almost exactly every 24 hours. This situation may bethe result of a poor pain management strategy; the patient isunder-medicated until he experiences a crisis, at which time a largedosage of medication is administered. Evaluation of the chart wouldprompt modification of this patient's pain medication frequency anddosage.

It is understood that, when using the option of adding direct medicaldata to the Health Score chart 100, system 10 has the ability to let thehealthcare provider select which principal corresponding measurements112 they would like to see. When the Health Score is improving or isadequate, such features may be toggled off, as they are less importantin such instances. They can easily be added to chart 100 if the score onplot 106 again drops, allowing the healthcare provider, optionally, tohave additional analysis tools for determining the cause of the drop.

In another embodiment, presentation and/or comparison module 20 may beconfigured to alter Health Score chart 100, so that when a healthcareprovider detects a trend in the Health Score plot 106, they canunderstand exactly what factors are contributing. To this end, asillustrated in FIG. 9, system 10 may provide for a component expansionwindow 114, such that if the patient has a Health Score of 65 (forexample), the expansion might show that the patient lost 12 points dueto elevated temperature (over 101 Fahrenheit), lost 18 points due torapid pulse (between 100 and 110 beats per minute) and lost 5 points dueto a pain score of 5; all out of the perfect Health Score of 100.

In another embodiment, presentation and/or comparison module 20 may alsoalter Health Score chart 100 to obtain certain kinds of slopeinformation. Even though trends are usually easy to spot by eye uponlooking at Health Score plot 106, an automatic “simple” slopecalculation may also be useful. Mathematically, this is the firstderivative of the Health Score as a function of time. Due to the“noisiness” of typical Health Score plots 106, some averaging methodsmay be employed as well. If the slope is positive, the patient isprobably getting better; if it is approximately zero, then the patientis staying the same; and if it is negative, then the patient is probablygetting worse. Slope lines 116 may be added to the Health Score plot106, as shown in FIG. 10. Such slope information may help identifytrends in Health Score plot 106, particularly, when plot 106 is “noisy”due to large variations between each Health Score measurement. Althoughnormally “staying the same” would not be considered a negative, in thesituation where the patient is expected to be recuperating, “staying thesame” may be quite worrisome. In the present example, although the mostrecent Health Scores on plot 106 are constant at about a level of 70,the slope line 116 shows a negative slope, taking into account priorpoints, including a time early on day 4 when the score was closer to 90.

Presentation and/or comparison module 20 of system 10 may also compute“rate of change” of the simple slope. For instance, although the patientis still getting better, the rate of improvement may be decreasing. Thisslow-down in recovery could be evidence of a problem just beginning todevelop. Mathematically, this curvature information is the secondderivative of Health Score as a function of time. Similar to the slopedata 116, due to the “noisiness” of the curves, averaging is included inthe computation. It is understood that attending physicians can adjustthe slope calculation to include more or less reference Health Scoresfrom plot 100 depending on the time span over which the physicianintends to analyze.

The Health Score may be calculated continuously for a patient's entirehospital stay and/or recovery period and any or all of that informationmay be displayed on the screen. In some embodiments, the graph maydisplay the patient's Health Score during his/her entire hospital stay,thereby enabling the healthcare provider to look at one screen and beable to understand the patient's health history, as opposed to having toflip through hundreds of pages of a patient's medical history. In someembodiments, the time span over which the Health Score is plotted may bea patient's entire hospital stay, the patient's stay in a certain ward,such as the ICU or ER, the past few days of the patient's stay, a numberof hours (such as 3, 5, 10, 12, 13 or more hours), days, weeks ormonths, or any length of time as not all embodiments are intended to belimited in this respect. In some embodiments, the chart may containcompressed or selective data from a period of time and full data from adifferent period of time. For example, if a patient has been in ahospital for a month, the most recent three days may be depicted byhourly Health Scores, while the rest of the month, prior to those threedays, may be depicted by a daily summary point on the chart.

When the raw data is noisy, a “running average” or other “smoothing” ofthe Health Score can be displayed on Health Score charts. The smoothedHealth Score curve 118, shown in FIG. 10, could incorporate both the1^(st) derivative (slope) and/or the 2^(nd) derivative (curvature) bycolor-coding or by thickness of the displayed line. For example, if thepatient was getting worse (negative slope), the line might be coloredred. If the patient is getting worse at an accelerating rate, or isgetting better at a lessening rate, then the line could be bolded foremphasis.

Presentation and/or comparison module 20 may further display a panel ofHealth Score charts 120, as shown in FIG. 11. Typically, a nurse or adoctor or a unit supervisor wants to see, on a single page, the graphsfor all the patients in their care. Therefore, system 10 may provide forthe creation of a patient panel 120, displaying a series of Health Scorecharts 100. Patient IDs can be included in the label data 104 toidentify each chart 100 on panel 120. This is especially useful becausean attending physician may wish to appoint more of his time to patientswith falling Health Scores (rather than rising ones), given that thosepatients with falling scores will likely require more attention andgiven that the physician's time is usually very limited.

It is understood that such modifications to patient Health Score charts100 are intended only as example modification and are in no way intendedto limit the scope of the present invention. Any similar invention thatutilizes modified Health Score charts 100 is also within thecontemplation of the present invention.

In one embodiment, fifty potential variables may be used from datareadily available in the patient's records. For some or all potentialvariables, excess risk as a function of the variable may be computed, asmeasured by one-year mortality. The computed excess risk may be theadditional mortality risk above the risk for the variable's minimummortality. In order to provide the Health Score with continuous inputfunctions of each of these variables, the plots of 1-year mortality maybe compared with each variable to higher order polynomials. With allvariables on a common risk scale, the relative importance of variablesmay be determined by using stepwise logistic regression. Two variablesets (with a total of twenty-six variables) may be built, one whichincorporates data inputted approximately every 4-6 hours (vital sign andnursing assessments) and the other including data from blood chemistrypanels and blood analysis.

Each set of variables may be used to construct a model scaled from zeroto 100, so that the best health would be represented by a value of 100and the worst health be represented by a value of zero. The Health Scoremay consist of a linear combination of these two models weighted by twofactors: a scaling factor, to bring the absolute values of the twomodels into alignment, and a time-dependent factor, used to determinethe proportion of the more slowly refreshed chemistry panel model, whosecontribution decays to zero over 48 hours as the data ages.

The Health Score may use 26 variables, for example, vital signs,including temperature, systolic blood pressure, diastolic bloodpressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation and respiratory rate;nursing assessments, including cardiac, food/nutrition,gastrointestinal, genitourinary, musculoskeletal, neurological,peripheral vascular, psycho-social, respiratory, skin/tissue andsafety/fall risk standards; scores, including Braden Scale Heartpatterns; blood chemistry, including blood urea nitrogen, creatinine,chloride, sodium and potassium; and blood analysis, including hemoglobinand white blood cell count.

In one embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 1,alert module 22 may send an alert to an attending physician orsupervising nurse that a Health Score of a particular patient has fallenbelow a pre-determined threshold at step 220. For example, if anattending physician sets a threshold of 70, then patients falling belowsuch a level may cause alert module 22 to send an alert message tosystem terminal 10B at nursing station 32. Although the physician maywish to see Health Score charts 100, regardless of the alerts, alertmodule 22 may act as a reserve precaution warning of the general failinghealth conditions of a patient who may be approaching a crisissituation. It is understood that the alert may actually be set to anupper threshold as well. Keeping physicians aware of improving healthconditions of certain patients may be useful in making dischargedecisions or in adjusting medication. Alerts may also be triggered by afall of so many points in Health Score or by a slope that is of asufficient negative magnitude.

As such, the above-described system 10 and accompanying generated HealthScore charts 100 may provide a convenient means for monitoring patienthealth status, particularly in hospital post-operational situations. Itmay allow doctors to get a feel for the overall health of the patientand to detect trends in the patient's health. Such information isparticularly useful in preventing crisis situations from arising inpatients, where the worsening condition (of a patient of adequate, yetdeteriorating health) is overlooked until it is too late. The creationof the Health Score chart 100, by the present invention, may help inalerting attending physicians, nurses, or “rapid response teams” todeteriorating conditions, even when a spot check of the patient's healthwould seem to show the patient to be in an adequate state of health.

In addition to the uses outlined above, the Health Score can be used forstatistical analysis. For example, the Health Score and the Health Scorecharts 100 can be used in retrospective research. Many studies of drugsand procedures are published monthly. These studies would benefit fromthe inclusion of a readily computable Health Score.

For example, a procedure is often evaluated in terms of mortality rate,length of hospital stay, or number of re-admissions to the hospital.These measures are all significant, but at the same time are all rathercrude measures. For example, if “Procedure A” has a mortality rate of0.5% and “Procedure B” has a mortality rate of 0.7%, it may be verydifficult to judge one the superior of the other, using only thesemortality statistics. However, if patients discharged after Procedure Ahave an average Health Score of 80, and those discharged after ProcedureB have an average Health Score of 60, there may be a real and meaningfuldifference between the two procedures in terms of overall efficacy intreating the patient. Thus, system 10 may provide a more sensitivemeasurement of health than any other available measure, since it is notbased solely on major “outcomes” (like discharge or death), but ratheron a more subtle combination of overall health factors. A medical studyusing the Health Score, which this invention makes readily available forevery patient, may find earlier and easier and more meaningful“statistical significance” than a similar study that needed to wait foreventual mortality outcomes.

An additional feature of Health Scores generated by system 10 is thatthe Health Score can be used as a predictor to assist in determiningwhich patients require the most care. Although individual symptoms andraw medical data may be varied, the amalgamated Health Score, as shownon Health Score charts 100, tends to be an accurate predictor of patientoutcome. For instance, using Health Score data generated post facto,FIG. 12 shows actual graphic correlation between Health Scores fromsystem 10 (computed at transfer to the ICU from a regular ward of thehospital) versus the rate of predicted expiration after an ICU stay. Thechart shows a precipitous decline in survival rates when the patienthas, incoming to the ICU, an overall Health Score below 65. In suchinstances, ICU units admitting patients with Health Scores below 65 maychoose to divert additional resources to these patients, in order toreduce morbidity and mortality rates. The Health Score is a sensitivenew tool for the ICU use. In this example, patient “A” with a HealthScore of 65, versus patient “B” with a Health Score of 75, might notexhibit obviously different symptoms, and thus the patients might betreated similarly if the Health Score were not available. But when thedoctors know that there is a statistically significant decline insurvival rate when the Health Score is 65, patient “A” may get theadditional care that would save his life.

Furthermore, incoming Health Scores can be used as an indicator ofsurvival rates before undergoing certain procedure. Not all patients areequal when entering the hospital for a procedure. In some cases, adecision “not to operate” may be made if the risks of complication aretoo great. An admission-timed Health Score from system 10 may alsoprovide statistical information for post-operative survival rates, whichcould greatly influence a hospital's decision to recommend the use ofsurgery, versus alternative treatments.

In some embodiments, the system may allow physicians and nurses andclinical researchers to provide more effective health care for eachpatient, especially those spending several days in a hospital. In someembodiments, hospitals may avoid errors and reduce crisis management byusing the system's ability to detect trends in a patient's health beforethe patient reaches a crisis point. Recognizing a serious decline soonenough to administer proper treatment may be a life-saving benefit. Insome embodiments, the system may give physicians and nurses a way inwhich to get the “big picture” of a patient's condition and absorb in aglance perhaps 100 pages of a patient's medical records. This deeperunderstanding, along with this new capability to detect health trends,both short-term (over the space of hours), and long-term (over the spaceof days), may be important in delivery of effective medical care. Insome embodiments, an entirely new field of scientific study may beenabled, where medical and surgical treatments can be evaluated by thenew measurements provided by some of the systems disclosed herein

In some embodiments, a new measurement of health is generated, hereintermed the patient “Health Score” which may be continually plotted anddisplayed to show a patient's medical progress during his/her hospitalstay. Some embodiments of the present invention may prove to be a vitalaid for improving the quality and continuity of medical care.

All patents, patent applications, and published references cited hereinare hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. It will beappreciated that several of the above-disclosed and other features andfunctions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into manyother different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen orunanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvementstherein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which arealso intended to be encompassed by the following claims.

EXAMPLE #1

As depicted in the embodiment shown in FIG. 13, a patient was admittedwith complaints related to a foot problem. The patient's historyincluded chronic alcoholism. For two days the patient was stable at aHealth Score of about 70. The following day the patient's Health Scoredropped from 70 to 50, remained at that level for 5 hours, then theHealth Score dropped from 50 to 20, a total of a 50 point drop over atotal of 12 hours. During this time the doctors' and nurses' notesreflect no clear indication that the patient had moved from a stablesituation to one in which the patient was at risk of dying. The patientremained at a low Health Score for 3 days at which point the patientdied. One of the physicians involved indicated that if he/she hadunderstood that there had been a significant change in the patient'sstatus, the physician would have reevaluated the treatment, altered itand possibly prevented the patient's death.

EXAMPLE #2

As depicted in the embodiment shown in FIG. 14, a patient entered thehospital with a complaint of jaundice. At the end of day 2 laparoscopicsurgery was performed to remove gallstones. For the next three days thepatient's Health Score declined from almost 100, which would have beennormal following corrective surgery, to 30, indicating significant riskof death. The patient received several transfusions due to a report ofanemia. It was only at day 4 that it was realized that a complicationhad occurred. At day 5 exploratory surgery was performed which found andcorrected a source internal bleeding. Following this, the patientrecovered to a Health Score of 60. FIG. 14 does not cover the perioduntil discharge

If the Health Score chart had been available, the complication wouldhave been detected at the end of day 3 when the Health Score was stillabove 60, instead of at days 4 and 5 when the Health Score had droppedto 30. Earlier detection would have not only reduced the patient's riskof death, but it would have shortened the patient's length of stay inthe hospital and significantly lessened the patient's suffering.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for monitoring a plurality of patientscomprising: a data module, executing on a computer, wherein the datamodule receives a plurality of data relating to a first patient's healthand a second patient's health at a first time point, receives aplurality of data relating to the first patient's health and the secondpatient's health at a second time point, and continually receives aplurality of data relating to the first patient's heath and the secondpatient's health at subsequent time points; a conversion module,executing on a computer, wherein the conversion module transforms theplurality of data received for the first patient at the first time pointinto transformed medical data and combines the transformed medical datato generate a first health score for the first patient, transforms theplurality of data received for the second patient at the first timepoint into transformed medical data and combines the transformed medicaldata to generate a first health score for the second patient, transformsthe plurality of data received for the first patient at the second timepoint into transformed medical data and combines the transformed medicaldata to generate a second health score for the first patient, transformsthe plurality of data received for the second patient at the second timepoint into transformed medical data and combines the transformed medicaldata to generate a second health score for the second patient,transforms each continually received data for the first patient intotransformed medical data and combines the transformed medical data togenerate additional health scores for the first patient, and transformseach continually received data for the second patient into transformedmedical data and combines the transformed medical data to generateadditional health scores for the second patient; and a display module,executing on a computer, wherein the display module creates a firsthealth score chart of continually plotted health scores of the firstpatient over time to show the first patient's medical progress, andwherein the display module creates a second health score chart ofcontinually plotted health scores of the second patient over time toshow the second patient's medical progress.
 2. The system of claim 1wherein at least some of the plurality of data received by the datamodule includes datum from a nursing assessment, wherein the nursingassessment is performed by a nurse.
 3. The system of claim 1 furthercomprising an alert module, executing on a computer, wherein the alertmodule sends an alert to an attending physician or supervising nurse ifa health score of either the first patient or the second patient hasfallen below a pre-determined threshold.
 4. The system of claim 1wherein the health score chart shows continually plotted health scoresof the patient over time to show the patient's medical progress, andalso shows a statistical reference curve so that the health scores ofthe patient may be compared to an average patient with similarconditions and circumstances.
 5. The system of claim 4 furthercomprising an alert module, executing on a computer, wherein the alertmodule sends an alert to an attending physician or supervising nurse ifthe medical progress of the patient differs from the statisticalreference curve.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein, by analyzing themedical progress of the patients by viewing the first health score chartand the second health score chart of the display module, performance ofa particular doctor or nurse can be evaluated.
 7. The system of claim 1wherein, by analyzing the medical progress of the patients by viewingthe first health score chart and the second health score chart of thedisplay module, effectiveness of a medical treatment can be evaluated.8. The system of claim 1 wherein, by analyzing the medical progress ofthe patients by viewing the first health score chart and the secondhealth score chart of the display module, quality of care of a healthcare facility can be evaluated.
 9. The system of claim 1 wherein asingle health score plotted on either the first health score chart orthe second health score chart can be expanded to access additionalinformation about the first patient or the second patient.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9 wherein the additional information is the plurality ofdata that was received and transformed to generate each health score.11. The system of claim 9 wherein the additional information is a nameof a particular doctor or nurse caring for the patient.
 12. The systemof claim 1 wherein the first and the second health score charts arecreated so as to allow a user to determine how many nurses are needed toattend to the plurality of patients and to equalize workload among thenurses by viewing the first and second health score charts of thedisplay module.
 13. A system for long-term monitoring of a plurality ofpatients health comprising: a data module, executing on a computer,wherein the data module receives a plurality of data relating to a firstpatient at a first time point, receives a plurality of data relating tothe first patient at a subsequent time point, receives a plurality ofdata relating to a second patient at a first time point, and receives aplurality of data relating to the second patient at a subsequent timepoint; a conversion module, executing on a computer, wherein theconversion module transforms the plurality of data received for thefirst patient at the first time point into transformed medical data andcombines the transformed medical data to generate a first health scorefor the first patient, transforms the plurality of data received at thesecond time point for the first patient into transformed medical dataand combines the transformed medical data to generate a second healthscore for the first patient, transforms the plurality of data receivedfor the second patient at the first time point into transformed medicaldata and combines the transformed medical data to generate a firsthealth score for the second patient, and transforms the plurality ofdata received at the second time point for the second patient intotransformed medical data and combines the transformed medical data togenerate a second health score for the second patient; and a displaymodule, executing on a computer, wherein the display module creates afirst health score chart of continually plotted health scores of thefirst patient over time for the long-term monitoring of the firstpatient's health, and wherein the display module creates a second healthscore chart of continually plotted health scores of the second patientover time for the long-term monitoring of the second patient's health.14. The system of claim 13 wherein at least some of the plurality ofdata received by the data module includes datum from a nursingassessment, wherein the nursing assessment is performed by a nurse. 15.The system of claim 13 further comprising an alert module, executing ona computer, wherein the alert module sends an alert to an attendingphysician or supervising nurse if a health score of either the firstpatient or the second patient has fallen below a pre-determinedthreshold.
 16. The system of claim 13 wherein, by analyzing the healthscore chart of the patients by viewing the first health score chart andthe second health score chart of the display module, long term declininghealth trends can be spotted.
 17. The system of claim 13 wherein asingle health score plotted on either the first health score chart orthe second health score chart can be expanded to access additionalinformation about the first patient or the second patient.
 18. A systemfor tracking a patient's medical progress during a first heath carefacility visit and a subsequent health care facility visit comprising: adata module, executing on a computer, wherein the data module receives aplurality of data relating to the patient's health at a first time pointduring the subsequent health care facility visit, receives a pluralityof data relating to the patient's health at a second time point duringthe subsequent health care facility visit, and continually receives aplurality of data relating to the patient's heath at subsequent timepoints during the subsequent health care facility visit, wherein atleast some of the plurality of data received by the data module includesdatum from a nursing assessment, wherein the nursing assessment isperformed by a nurse; a conversion module, executing on a computer,wherein the conversion module transforms the plurality of data receivedat the first time point during the subsequent health care facility visitinto transformed medical data and combines the transformed medical datato generate a first health score, transforms the plurality of datareceived at the second time point during the subsequent health carefacility visit into transformed medical data and combines thetransformed medical data to generate a second health score, andtransforms each continually received data during the subsequent healthcare facility visit into transformed medical data and combines thetransformed medical data to generate additional health score; and adisplay module, executing on a computer, wherein the display modulecreates a health score chart of continually plotted health scores of thepatient over time during the subsequent health care facility visit, andwherein the display module displays a health score chart of continuallyplotted health scores of the patient over time during the first healthcare facility visit to track the patient's medical progress.